Rotary-tray filing device



H. L. NEILSEN ROTARY-TRAY FILING DEVICE June 18, 1957 Filed July 10, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR'. ff/Zdaur Z. lVf/swz June 18, 1957 H. L. NEILSEN ROTARY-TRAY FILING DEVICE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 10, 1953 w QQW ffi/daarl. M17302? 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 10, 1955 INVENTOR.

fifidaar Z. A e/is??? arrow ROTARY-TRAY FILING DEVICE Hildaur L. Neil'sen, Metuchen, N. 3., assignor to Zephyr American Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Applicationluly 10, 1953, Serial No. 367,219

1 Claim. (Cl. 312-267) This invention relates to card filing devices such as-are used in ofiices to keep card records-in an orderly fashion, and, more particularly, the present invention is concerned with a card filing device in which the cards are arranged in plural card trays supported between wheels or disks which may be rotated to bring any one of the trays'to an upper, accessible or open-position at the top of the de-' vice where cards may be inserted or removed for the purpose ofmaintaining' and consulting data recorded thereon.

Broadly speaking, such devices are not new but those heretofore developed are subjectto several difficulties. One such difliculty arises from the fact that, when tray supporting'wheels are turned to bring a selected tray to its open position, the tray tends to wander from that position'either because of unbalance of the cards inthe upon afloor. With such an arrangement, it'is obviously. difficult for a'user' to have adequate knee space, so thathe cannot sit near enough to the device and in such a position'in relation thereto to enable him to work at the card trays' with any reasonablejdegree of convenience.

An important object of this invention, therefore, is. theprovision of such a rotary-trayfiling device having easily manipulated means for holding the tray-supporting.

wheel positively against any rotation or wanderingwhen any selected one of thecardtrays carried by the wheel is in its open or accessible position.

Another important object is the provision of such a filing device having means whereby a card tray, in an open position, is held automatically against any swaying action, which, of course, would'be'quite disconcerting to the user.

Another important object of this invention is the propresenting convenient work surfaces.

Another important object of this'inventionis'tlie pro vision'of'sueh a rotary-tray filing device having eXttililZfL readily accessible means for manually turning the traycarrying wheel and including simple yet very effective means for adjusting such wheel turning means toten'sion them'accor'ding 'to the preference of the user.

The foregoing and other objects are accomplished'b'y a" rotary-tray filing device according to this invention of which, for illustrative purposes, a single embodiment is shown intlie accompanying drawings without, however, limiting the invention to that particular embodi-' ment.

nite States atent O vision of sliding cover means for closing sucha filing. device when it is not in use, which means, however, may-serve,-in their openpositions, as desk-like portionsice In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rotary-tray filing device of a preferred form according to this invention, shown with the cover portion thereof in open positionand with certain parts cut away to more clearly show interior parts.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a leaf or slide used in association with the cover to provide convenient desk-like work surfaces, particularly at each side and forwardly of the devices cabinet.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the underside of a strip or rail member of the devicescabinet, showing portions with which the upper edge of a card tray may coact'when the tray is in its open position to'prevent undesired swaying of the tray.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the device with-certain upper and forward parts thereof cut away to show underlying parts more clearly.

Fig. 5 is a side-to-side sectional view substantially on the irregular line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig.6 is-apartial, vertical, central, sectional view-substantially on the 1ine'66- of Fig. 5.

Fig. .7is afragmentary, vertical, sectional view substan tially on the line 77 of Fig. 5, showing somedetails of a belt tensioning and wheel operating mechanism.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary, vertical, sectional view showing the said'belttensioning and wheel operatingmechanism substantially on the irregular line 3-8 'ofFig. 9; and

Fig. 9 is a horizontal, sectional view of structures of Figs. 7 and 8 substantially on the lines 9-9 of said figures.

The embodiment of the invention shown in the draw: ings consists ofamore or less cubicahhollow casing 12 which rests on afloor surface and-has substantially similar front and back walls 14, 16, respectively, and substantiallysimiiar side walls 18 and 2t). Within the easing is a wheel22 carried for rotation upon ashaft 24 which extends substantially from the front to the back of the casing and is journaled at its front end upon a bearing bracket-'26 suitably fixed, as by welding, riveting or the like, to the inner surface of the front wall 14 of the casing; and the rear end of the shaft 24 is similarly supportedin a bearing'bracket 27 which may be'similarlyfixed to the back wall 16.

The wheel 22 is in the form of two approximately similar disks 28, 36, disposed respectively at the forward and rear ends of the shaft 24. These :two disks are integrated to provide a single spool-like rigid wheel by means of an axle housing 32.0f sheet metal which is formed into a square tube, the end portions of' each side of which are cut and bent outwardly to form radial tabs 34 which as flat against the inner surfaces of the disks 28, 30 and may be spot-welded, riveted or otherwise rigidly secured thereto. single blank of sheet metal bent longitudinally in order to provide it with four sides; the edges of the blank coming almost together toward a corner of the housing as at 36. In order to give rigidity to the thus-formed axle housing so that the disks 28, 30 may not turn even slightly relatively to each other, an angle strap 38 may be welded as at 40 or otherwise suitably fixed to the adja-' cent free sides of said housing.

A plurality of card trays 42, four in number in the The casing'12, in addition to its already mentioned The axle housing 32 may be formed from" a' walls, includes opposed, substantiflly similar, sidewisely slidable cover portions 46, 48 which may he slid apart to open positions, as in Fig. l, to give access to a tray 42 which may be at the upper limit of its circular path in the device, or may be brought entirely together to closedv positions to completely close oif the interior of the device. These cover portions, either in their open or closed positions, may also serve as a desk-like support for papers or for record cards 43 while the latter are out of the device for reference purposes or for the entry of data thereon. One of said cover portions may be provided with a suitable lock 58 for securing the two cover portions together in their closed positions.

The cover portions 46, 48 are substantially similar but reversely designed. They are preferably formed with front and rear skirt portions 52, 53, respectively, the bottom edges of which are inturned to form flanges 54. Welded or otherwise suitably secured to the lower faces of the flanges 54 are inwardly facing channels 56 which slidably engage, within them, rectangular, horizontal beads 58 which may either be bent-out portions of the top margins of the walls 14 and 16 or, as illustrated, may be provided by a separate, longitudinally folded strip 60 which may be suitably secured by bolts 62 in position along the top margins of the walls 14 and 16. By providing the cover portions 46, 48 with the inturned flanges 54 and also by providing integral, inwardly facing channels 56 embracing the beads 58, a space 64 is provided in each of said cover portions for purposes hereinafter more fully detailed.

The integrated flanges 54 and upper horizontal flanges of the channels 56 form single ledges which slide upon the upper surfaces of the strips 60. These strips, like most other parts of the device, may be formed of sheet metal and intermediate portions thereof may be turned down and under at their inner edges to form separate strips or layers 66, the bottom surfaces of which may be provided with a layer or coating of sound deadening and braking material 67 which is in intimate association with the top surfaces of flanges 68 formed along end walls 70 of a card tray in its uppermost position; this arrangement constituting quiet means positively preventing material swinging of a card tray when it is in its uppermost position in its circular path of movement in the casing and retarding rotation of the wheel 22 as each tray approaches its uppermost position. The trays 42, of course, are similar and, in addition to their front and rear end walls 70, have side walls 72 and a bottom 74. They are open at the top and the record cards 43 disposed therein ordinarily protrude to some extent above the upper limits of the side walls 72, as may be understood from the broken-line showing of such cards in Fig. 6.

The front disk 28 of the tray-carrying wheel 22 may have a pulley wheel 78 fixed to the front face thereof to receive and be driven by a belt 80 which extends toward one side of the device, within the cabinet, and passes about a driving pulley wheel 82 carried on a stub shaft 84 which is journalled within a pulley frame 86; the latter being pivotally secured at its lower end to the front wall 14 of the casing by means of a pivot pin or bolt 88. The stub shaft 84 extends forwardly through a horizontal slot 90 formed in the front casing wall 14 to permit movement of said shaft toward and away from the card-carrying wheel and thereby accomplish adjustment of the tension of the driving belt. A manually operable knot 92 is fixed upon the protruding front end of the stub shaft 84 by means of set-screw 94.

The pulley frame 86 is pivotally adjustable, to loosen or tighten the belt 80, by means of an adjusting bolt 96, the headed end 98 of which may be slotted to permit turning of the bolt with a common screw-driver. The bolt 96 is preferably threaded throughout most or all of its length and extends through a bolt hole in casing wall 20, thence through the coils of a compression coil spring 100, thence through a wall 102 of the pulley frame 86,

and thence the bolt is threaded into a nut 104 which rests against the inner side of the wall 102 and limits the inner (leftward as viewed in the drawings) movement of said pulley frame.

The pulley frame 86 preferably is formed of sheet metal bent to the form of a U as viewed from above as shown in Fig. 9, and the bolt 96 may be near enough to a side Wall 106 of the pulley frame that a flat side of the nut 104 will slidably engage the wall 106 but be restrained thereby against turning so that, when the adjusting bolt 96 is turned in or out with a screw-driver, the non-rotatable nut 104 will thread its way along said bolt and coact with the compressed spring to cause the pulley frame to pivot about the axis of the pivot bolt 88.

The described pivotal action of pulley frame 86, of course, will cause either a tightening or a loosening of the belt 80, depending upon the direction in which the bolt 96 is turned. The compression spring 100 assures not only that the pulley frame will pivot outwardly toward the end wall 20 of the casing when the adjusting bolt 96 is tightened but also that the pulley frame will pivot inwardly away from the casing wall 20 when the adjusting bolt 96 is loosened or eased oif. Of course, instead of providing a slotted head for the adjusting bolt 96 to receive a screw-driver, said head may be formed otherwise to receive some other suitable driving tool, or it may be provided with wings so that the bolt 96 may be manipulated without the use of a tool.

Automatically engaging but manually releasable latching means are provided to assure that any one of the card trays which is moved to its upper or accessible position will be positively held in that position until intentionally released therefrom. Said latching means, which may best be understood from Figs. 4, 5 and 6, consist of a substantially horizontal latch bar 110 which is pivoted at its left end by means of a pivot bolt 112 to a bracket 114 fixed within the casing 12 near the top thereof. The bolt 112 extends vertically so that the latch bar 110 may pivot in a horizontal plane with its right end moving forwardly and rearwardly of the casing.

The latch bar 110, as seen in Figs. 4 and 6 is disposed within the casing 12 just in back of the front casing wall 14 with its right end at about the level of the top portion of the margin of the front disk 28 of the tray-carrying wheel. A rearwardly extending latch pin 116 is fixed to the right end of the horizontal latch bar 110 and is positioned so that it may extend into any one of four apertures or radial slots 118 formed in said front disk 28. The arrangement is such that, when the latch pin 116 extends into one of the slots 118, the wheel 22 is positively held against any possibility of rotation with one of the card trays 42 in its uppermost or accessible position. The slots 118, like the card trays 42, are spaced 90 degrees apart about the wheel 22, in such manner that each of said slots functions as described, to hold a difierent one of the card trays in its open or accessible position.

The latch bar 110 is biased normally rearwardly by means of a tension spring 120 which is tensioned between a lug 122 on the latch bar and a lug 124 fixed at a stationary point upon a reinforcing cross-piece 126 provided within the casing 12. Toward the right end of the latch bar 110 as viewed in Figs. 4 and 5, there is fixed thereto an upstanding, relatively rigid, operating finger 128 which extends upwardly through a slot 130 in strip 60 so that the upper end of the said operating finger protrudes above said strip into a space which is Within the cover portions 46, 48 when the latter are in their closed positions but which is exposed when the latter are in open positions; the inner skirts or flanges 54 of said cover portions being cut away to avoid interference with said operating finger when the cover portions are moved into and from their open and closed positions. The slot 130 is preferably elongated in a front-to-back direction of the device so that the finger 128 may be manually moved forwardly to withdraw the latch pin 116 from slot 118 in the wheel disk 28, after which the wheel 22 may be turned by operation of the hand wheel 92.

The finger 128 may be released upon commencement of the stated turning of wheel 22, the latch pin, thereafter, riding upon the flat outer surface of disk 28 until it springs into the next slot 118 coming into alignment with it, whereupon the card tray operatively related to the latter slot is held in its accessible or open position. Of course, the finger 128 can be held to hold the latch pin retracted until a particular, desired card tray approaches its accessible position and then be released to bring the desired card tray to rest in its open position as desired. To facilitate manipulation of the operating finger 128, the latter perferably is provided with a suitable finger-piece 132 fixed upon the upper end thereof.

The clear spaces 64 provided in the two cover portions 46, 48 accommodate forwardly slidable leaves 134 which are formed of sheet metal with side skirt portions 136 having bottom finishing flanges 138. The leaves 134 slide within guideways 140, suitably fixed within the cover portions 46 and 48. The leaves 134 extend through large slots 142 provided therefor in front skirts 52 of cover portions 46, 48, and said leaves, preferably, are formed with front finishing flanges 146 which may serve as finger-grips enabling the leaves to be manually drawn forwardly and horizontally to extended positions relatively to cover portions 46, 48.

The leaves 134 may be provided with knobs or handles (not shown) at their front edges to facilitate forward shifting thereof.

Stops 148 may be provided for limiting the forward movement of the leaves 134 relatively to their related cover portions, these stops, as shown, being in the form of resilient metal strips which are welded or otherwise suitably fixed to the side skirts 136 of said leaves and having outwardly bent front ends 150 adapted to abut the inner surface of front skirt 52 of a related cover portion adjacent to the end portions of the slots 142.

The cover portions 46 and 48 may have means associated therewith for limiting their outward movement, in the form of similar stop fingers 151, the outer ends of which are fixed, as by bolts 152, to internal side marginal flanges 154 formed as rigid or integral parts of the easing 12. The stop fingers 151 extend upwardly and ,inwardly into the open areas within the leaves 134 and the free ends 156 of said fingers abut the inner side skirts of said leaves when a related cover portion 46 or 48 has been moved sidewisely to its fully open position.

It may be assumed that, in inactive use, as for record storage purposes, all four card carrying trays 42 are substantially filled with record cards, that the cover portions 46, 48 may be in closed position, and that the leaves 134 are fully retracted or, in other words, in their rearmost positions within their related cover portions. In active use, one may push the cover portions 46, 48 apart to the limits permitted by stop fingers 151 to render accessible any one of the card trays 42 which may be in uppermost position on the wheel 22. If it is desired to refer to a card in another card tray, the finger-piece 132 is manually drawn forwardly to withdraw latch pin 116 clear of the disk 28, whereupon hand wheel or knob 92 is turned in either direction to bring said other tray into uppermost or accessible position; the finger-piece, meanwhile, having been released to permit the latch pin to spring into slot 118 which is operatively related to said other tray so that the wheel 22 may not turn and thus, undesirably, permit the said other tray to wander from its accessible position.

The same procedure is followed to bring other trays to accessible position; and, in doing so, the hand wheel 92 preferably is turned in whichever direction will bring the desired card tray into accessible position with the least turning of the hand wheel.

One using the device may sit directly in front of it, but, as one in that position could not very conveniently write upon or refer to a card supported upon the cover portions 46, 48, one or both leaves 134 may be pulled forwardly and used for the purpose just stated. Upon discontinuance of active use, the leaves 134 are pushed back into the cover portions 46, 48 and the latter are pushed together to completely enclose the records stored in the device.

It should be apparent that the present inventive concept may be utilized in various structures other than those illustrated and described herein without, however, departing from the invention as set forth in the accompanying claim.

I claim:

In a rotary-tray card filing device comprising rotatable card carrying means which include a rotatable tray carrying wheel having disks at opposite sides thereof and plural card trays between and pivotally associated with said disks at angularly equidistant points substantially equidistant from said wheels axis of rotation, stationary supporting means for supporting said card carrying means, and manually controllable restraining means, carried by said supporting means substantially within the latter and adapted to coact with apertures located concentrically in one of said disks, which apertures are in substantially the same angular interrelationship as said points, said restraining means being adapted to oppose rotation of said wheel and thereby permit holding of any one of said card trays substantially at a particular radial point relatively to said axis of rotation, said restraining means comprising a latch bar adjacent to the outer face of the apertured one of said disks, a latch pin fixed to said latch bar and extending inwardly toward said outer disk-face in lateral alignment with the path pursed by said apertures upon rotation of said wheel, means associated with said latch bar continuously urging the latter yieldably toward said outer disk-face whereby to cause said latch pin to automatically move into any one of said apertures which comes into alignment with the latch pin and thereby hold said wheel against rotation, and a manually-operable release finger, integral with said latch bar and extending to the exterior of said supporting means, enabling manual withdrawal of said latch pin from the aperture to permit further turning of the wheel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 817,956 Carman Apr. 17, 1906 888,966 Dewey May 26, 1908 1,030,898 Langdale July 2, 1912 1,168,722 Guano Jan. 18, 1916 1,227,704 Ulrich May 29, 1917 1,264,816 Lanza Apr. 30, 1918 2,343,280 Cory Mar. 7, 1944 2,530,566 Clark et al Nov. 21, 1950 2,646,891 Morgan "July 28, 1953 

